On Reading Books from a Half-Alien Culture

Author / Editor
Medcalf, Stephen.

Title
On Reading Books from a Half-Alien Culture

Published
Stephen Medcalf, ed. The Later Middle Ages (London: Methuen; New York: Holmes & Meier, 1981), pp. 1-55.

Description
Seeks to bridge the intellectual and emotion distance between modern readers and medieval literature, addressing the nature of semantic change and changing ideas about human personality. Includes commentary on a range of medieval works, with extended treatments of "inwardness" in CT and TC, the dominance of craft over art in CT and medieval cathedrals, and the range of meaning of the word "lady."
Reprinted in Brian Cummings and Gabriel Josipovici, eds. The Spirit of England: Selected Essays of Stephen Medcalf (London: Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing, 2010), pp. 64-90.

Alternative Title
Later Middle Ages.
Spirit of England: Selected Essays of Stephen Medcalf.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General
Troilus and Criseyde
Language and Word Studies